LEADER PREPARATION
Lesson Summary:

Note: These lessons are designed to be 30 minutes long. If your club time is shorter than this, we encourage you to be prayerful about parts of this lesson to put more or less emphasis on. If limited on time, we urge you to prioritize Tool Time and summarize Dig In, as Tool Time is what prepares you for sharing the Gospel. As always, let the Holy Spirit guide your leadership.

This week’s lesson will set up the coming conversations surrounding God’s Redemptive Plan by examining His Old Testament promises. Although humanity continually walks away from Him, God never gives up on His people. Instead, He creates new ways for us to reunite with Him – to come back home.

Take a look at these videos from BibleProject as you prepare:

• Exile – https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/exile/
• The Story of the Bible – https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/the-story-of-the-bible/

Main Point
God’s promises of redemption in Jesus give us hope for today.

Team Roles

Host: This Student Leader will lead the Start Up section of the lesson, helping create a fun environment, making everyone feel welcome and included.
Speaker: This student leader will guide the group in growing deeper in their faith by reading and reflecting on passages of scripture. They will then connect the content to the group’s daily lives by asking practical questions and leading the conversation.
Other Roles: Promo, Welcome, and Follow Up. 

Scripture References

• Genesis 9:8-11
• Genesis 12:1-3

Materials Needed

• 2 Large Textbooks
• 10 Small Balls (Ping-Pong, Golf, etc.)
• Prayer Cards

(7 minutes)
Say: Welcome to First Priority. As we kick off our new month, let’s review the mission and vision of First Priority.

• Mission: To take the Hope of Christ to every student.
• Vision: Students Reach Students.

Welcome everyone and be sure to get the names of any new friends.

Icebreaker Game: Under Pressure
Materials Needed: 

• 2 Large Textbooks
• 10 Small Balls (Ping-Pong, Golf, etc.)

Ask for two volunteers who believe that they can handle intense pressure. Call them to the front of the room and hand each of them a textbook.
Explain to them that they will be balancing a small ball on the book for as long as they can.
Then, inform them that the game will become increasingly more challenging as time passes.
Explain that another ball will be added to each of their textbooks every thirty seconds.
The first player to lose a ball is eliminated.

(5 minutes)
Ask: How do you naturally react to failure? How do you feel when you don’t achieve a goal you’ve set for yourself? (Take a few moments for students to share.)

Say: Failure can often feel like the end of our story.

Thoughts like, “Give up! You were never good enough to try in the first place!” flood our minds and cause us to doubt our ability to try again.

Just a few generations after Adam and Eve’s failure to obey God in the Garden, the entire world failed so badly. The Bible says God regretted making human beings on the earth. You’ve probably heard this story before: God sent a flood to wipe out every living creature… that is, with the exception of Noah, his family, and two of every kind of animal. Just like in the Garden, God didn’t let our failure have the final word. Instead, He made a promise. And His promise paved a new way forward for humanity on the path of grace.

Read Scripture:

I now establish my covenant with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you-the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you-every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. (Genesis 9:8-11)

Say: God knew that people would fail again. They would reject Him and trouble His heart. Yet, rather than being done with us, He blessed us – again (Gen 9:1; 1:28) – and made an everlasting covenant with us. That’s how God works: He makes promises, and then He keeps them.

We can see God’s promise-making pattern continue just a few chapters later after Noah’s descendants had fallen back into humanity’s pattern of sin.

Read Scripture:

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you. (Genesis 12:1-3)

Say: With this promise, God created the people of Israel – His chosen nation through whom He would continue His plan to redeem the world. Like Adam and Eve, Israel experienced their own exile because of sin, but even they couldn’t stop God’s plan to bring us home to Himself. Most of the Old Testament tells their story with God, and it’s a story propelled by God’s promises to its climax in Jesus life, death, and resurrection. Jesus is the descendant of Abraham through whom God is blessing the whole world. All of God’s promises have their completion in Him. Through God’s promises and perfect love, He gives humanity a hope for the future.